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* The kidnapped people are alive and apparently well.
* The kidnapped people have been assimilated and seem to be okay with it.
* Ethan was the primary surgeon.
* A portion of "The Others" simply "work here."
* The Others seem to have some sort of "cult-like" authoritarian government.
* The Others seems to have "rescued" the kids to give them a better life on the island -- and took some of the adults to help with them.
* etc...

* The kidnapped people are alive and apparently well.
* The kidnapped people have been assimilated and seem to be okay with it.
* Ethan was the primary surgeon.
* A portion of "The Others" simply "work here."
* The Others seem to have some sort of "cult-like" authoritarian government.
* The Others seems to have "rescued" the kids to give them a better life on the island -- and took some of the adults to help with them.
* etc...

We knew most of those before, except that the kidnapped people were assimilated (which is basically the same as your last point) and that Ethan was a surgeon. But neither of those were major mysteries that were supposed to be revealed. Now if the stewardess had answered Jack's "What are you doing here?" we'd have had a real answer. But again the writers promise answers and instead pose more questions.

I wouldn't go that far. Walt actually seemed to have the ability to make stuff appear. Juliet can't do that. She was experimenting and was able to get her sister pregnant, and the guy that was recruiting her to join the Others had her husband hit with a bus. Juliet doesn't seem to have any powers at all.

1. What are the Others/Dharma doing on the island?
2. What is the smoke monster?
3. Where is the island?
4. Why do all the characters seemed to have run into each other before the flight?
5. What is the "sickness"?
6. What's the deal with the 4-toed statue? Who were the original inhabitants of the island?
7. Why is Hanso (from LE) trying to infect people from a virus? (from the Sri Lanka video)
8. What/who is causing the whispering?
9. What are Walt's special powers? Why was Walt talking backwards? Why did he appear soaking wet?
10. What is causing all the hallucinations on the island?
11. Why is Desmond able to predict future events?
12. What happened to Michael and Walt?
12. Did Desmond really travel back in time, or was it just another different type of hallucination?
13. What is the big construction project that the Others working on?
14. Who is "him"?
15. What exactly was the Incident?
16. How did Locke, Eko and Desmond all escape the hatch before certain death? Why was Desmond naked, and how did he get from the hatch to the jungle?
17. How did Locke regain use of his legs? What caused Locke to briefly lose the use of his legs on the island?
18. Why are the others unable to conceive children?
19. Who is Jacob? Why does the video refer to Jacob in the past tense?
20. What caused the Nigerian plane to crash on the Island?
21. What is the significance of the eye close-ups?
22. Why did Juliet want Ben dead?
23. Why were they brainwashing Karl? What is the purpose of the clockwork orange video?
24. How did Locke become paralyzed?
25. Why did 'Fenry' say he'd come for Locke?
26. Why are there Polar Bears on the island?
27. What is the Dharma Shark?
28. Is Alex Ben's biological daughter?
29. Why did Radzinsky make the blast door map? Did he really kill himself? Why?
30. Who was the man with the eyepatch? And where was the video feed coming from?
31. What is in the vaccine that is/was being injected into Claire?
32. What happened to the the Black Rock? How did the Black Rock get so far inland?
33. Why was Penelope looking for an electromagnetic anomoly? What will she do now that she has found it?
34. Was Libby sent by someone to give Desmond the sailboat?
35. Why were there so many survivors from the crash?
36. Why was Libby in the mental hospital? Did Libby recognise Hurley from the mental hospital?
37. Who spoke with Jack via the Intercom to try the door? Why was he hearing his father through the intercom?
38. Why did the smoke monster kill Eko?
39. Why did the Others want to take Kate and Sawyer?
40. Are Hurley's numbers really cursed? How?
41. Why did the entire sky light up when Desmond turned the failsafe?
42. Who was Libby's husband David? Any connection to Hurley's Dave?
43. What is the relationship between the Valenzetti numbers (or Valenzetti equation) and the Swan hatch?
44. Why were so many Dharma stations abandoned?
45. Why did the Others burn Kate's clothes? Why did they burn Colleen after she died?
46. Is Rose's cancer really cured?
47. Lift up your eyes and look North - What will be found there?
48. How was Walt communicating with Michael at the Swan computer? Was it really Walt?
49. Why was the Swan hatch under quarentine?
50. What happened to Jack's father's body?
51. Who removed Yemi's corpse from the Nigerian plane?
52. What were the surgeons in the medical hatch going to do to Claire?
52. Why is Alex helping the Survivors?
53. Why were the Numbers broadcasting on the transmitter?Who originally broadcasted them and why?
54. Can Jin now have children? Is he really the father?
55. What is the purpose of the Flame hatch?
56. Why was Locke so curious about the origin of Sawyer's name?
57. Why was Desmond in the Army prison?
58. What happened to the real Henry Gale and why?
59. Why did they take Michael's blood?
60. What is the cable used for they find on the beach that led them to Danielle?
61. Why did the psychic lie to Eko about being a fake? Why did he buy Claire a ticket for flight 815? What did he see?
62. Was Locke really "immaculately conceived"?
63. Are Dr. Candle/Wickman the same? Why did his name change?
64. Was someone in the Pearl hatch just before Locke entered? What was the stuff we saw on the side table?
65. Who is Brennan? What are the keys that he has?
66. Did Fenry do something other than enter the code?
67. Why was the orientation film edited and why were the missing parts in the other station hidden in the bible and simply not destroyed
68. Who/what brought the girl in Australia back to life?
69. Who was Sawyer talking about when he said I love her while recovering from his infection?
70. What happened to the replacements for the Swan? If it's so important, why was it left to fend for itself?
71. Who were Adam/Eve,the bodies, found by Jack in the caves?
72. What has Juliet been doing on the island? Does it have something to do with the pregnant male mouse?
73. Was Hurley's Lottery rigged?
74. Why was there a glass eye in the arrow hatch?
75. Why have so many people lost their arm (Montand, Wickman/Waxman, Ray Mullen)
76. What was the "Hurley Bird"
77. What was meant be "The computer must'nt be used for anything else". What else could the computer be used for?
78. What is the significance of the mark they put on Juliet?
79. Why was there a pile of unopened logs from the pearl in the middle of the jungle?
80. Where does the Dahrma food drop come from?
81. How did Kelvin know Desmond had arrived on the island? Is Kelvin really dead?
82. Why were there blast doors and a huge stash of guns in the Swan?
83. If the Swan hatch imploded, why did the hatch door go flying out to the beach?
84. Why did the monster kill the pilot?
85. What happened to Locke's Helen? Did Locke take the $200,000?
86. Was Edmund's death an accident?
87. What was the purpose of the Arrow hatch?
88. What was Ethan doing at Rachels, Juliet's sister?
89. How come Walt looks at a picture of a bird and one turns up dead and then he reads a comic with polar bears and they turn up?
90. What did Fenry mean by "We already got more than we bargined for from Walt" on the dock?
91. Why were the Others wearing costumes at first?
92. Where was the radio signal playing "Moonlight Serenade" coming from?
93. How did Mr.Paik know Jin & Sun were planning to run away?
94. What was in the pit Locke was being dragged into? Why was the monster trying to drag Locke into it?
95. Why were all the hairbrushes gone after the crash
96. How did such a rare bottle of whiskey make it to the island? Is it from Widmore's stash?
97. What happened to the passageways on the blast door map? Are they still there?
98. Who did Hurley kill?

Some of those questions are good, but several are pretty silly, such as "76. What was the 'Hurley Bird'?"

I think the point is that there are way too many unanswered questions. It's time for ABC to start giving the audience answers or risk losing viewers. This type of show by its very nature, cannot go on for 10 years. Same with Prison Break. Although 24 seems to have lasted but I have up after the first season.

I think the point is that there are way too many unanswered questions. It's time for ABC to start giving the audience answers or risk losing viewers.

Going by the standard set by that list, you could say that about any show. "Hey, on Heroes, what was the deal with that one reporter in the background of Nathan's press conference who wasn't doing anything significant but had an interesting tie? And what about the gun Eden used — what happened to it? And who is Sylar really?"

Several of the "questions" are not actually questions raised by the show and several have already been answered as well as anybody could reasonably expect.

(
Last edited by Chuckit; Feb 23, 2007 at 03:09 PM.
)

Chuck___"Instead of either 'multi-talented' or 'multitalented' use 'bisexual'."

Going by the standard set by that list, you could say that about any show. "Hey, on Heroes, what was the deal with that one reporter in the background of Nathan's press conference who wasn't doing anything significant but had an interesting tie? And what about the gun Eden used — what happened to it? And who is Sylar really?"

Several of the questions exist only in the minds of people who look for mysteries in everything and several have already been answered as well as anybody could reasonably expect.

True. Although I haven't seen Heroes though. You could probably find many unanswered questions about Seinfeld but then it's not that type of show. I don't think that the 98 questions listed above are just in people's imagination. The Lost producers consciously place the images for the viewer to question. IMHO, of course.

Going by the standard set by that list, you could say that about any show. "Hey, on Heroes, what was the deal with that one reporter in the background of Nathan's press conference who wasn't doing anything significant but had an interesting tie? And what about the gun Eden used — what happened to it? And who is Sylar really?"

Several of the "questions" are not actually questions raised by the show and several have already been answered as well as anybody could reasonably expect.

Not really. Most of the questions in that list are pretty big, and Heroes is pretty good about answering questions. The problem is Lost promotes the mystery of the show yet never actually reveals any bit of that mystery. Whenever the viewer thinks an answer is coming, it is really only more questions.

For example, most people have already forgotten about the man with the eye patch that Locke saw, but that wasn't a small event. Who the hell is that guy???

For example, most people have already forgotten about the man with the eye patch that Locke saw, but that wasn't a small event. Who the hell is that guy???

Oh man, I haven't forgotten about that dude. He's in my nightmares! But seriously, that bugged me because they made it out to be a significant thing, and it is, but they never touched on it again. But I have faith that that guy will turn up again later.

I think the writers have done a good job with keeping things in line and interesting, but I also think they've dug a massive hole that they will have a hard time getting out of. They've raised so many questions that tying them all up and answering all of them in a coherent manner will be a huge task.

My hope is that what we're seeing now is the low end of the arc, where things slow down and questions get raised and things get built up for the big ending. I hope that things start to pick up in pace, questions get answered without raising 10 more questions, and a resolution starts to become clearer. I think the remainder of this season will be slow, and the finale will be huge. Next season will be the fast paced one that redeems the series. (IMO)

Just because I know so many people (including my father anytime he hears someone mention the show, argh) who quote similar lists without even thinking about them, I decided to write out my thoughts on some of the sillier items.

4. Why do all the characters seemed to have run into each other before the flight? It would be far more stupid if they did attempt to answer this question.
10. What is causing all the hallucinations on the island? Didn't they establish earlier this season that it was the smoke monster?
11. Why is Desmond able to predict future events? Already answered.
12. What happened to Michael and Walt? Like…all the stuff in their flashback episodes?
12. Did Desmond really travel back in time, or was it just another different type of hallucination? I don't think they were trying to set this up as a major question.
14. Who is "him"? Uh…right.
15. What exactly was the Incident? Last season's finale gave us a decent idea.
16. How did Locke, Eko and Desmond all escape the hatch before certain death? Why was Desmond naked, and how did he get from the hatch to the jungle? It appears "certain death" is not an accurate description of the situation, is it?
20. What caused the Nigerian plane to crash on the Island? This is more idle curiosity than an actual mystery, isn't it?
21. What is the significance of the eye close-ups? ??
27. What is the Dharma Shark? WTF?
32. What happened to the the Black Rock? How did the Black Rock get so far inland? This falls under the category of "Interesting question, but not one that I really feel like the show needs to answer specifically."
34. Was Libby sent by someone to give Desmond the sailboat? If the answer is no, are they supposed to have an episode all about how Libby wasn't sent by someone to give Desmond the sailboat?
35. Why were there so many survivors from the crash? Because the show would be really boring if everybody died.
38. Why did the smoke monster kill Eko? The same reason it kills everything else?
41. Why did the entire sky light up when Desmond turned the failsafe? I have no idea why we're asking this question. Do we want some kind of detailed scientific explanation or what?
42. Who was Libby's husband David? Any connection to Hurley's Dave? I didn't remember Mr. David, and I question whether we were supposed to be wondering this.
45. Why did the Others burn Kate's clothes? Why did they burn Colleen after she died? Once again, doesn't really belong under the heading of "mystery" so much as "idle curiosity."
46. Is Rose's cancer really cured? What kind of dumbass question is this? You can ask "Is X really true?" about any fact on the show. Is Charlie really short? Does Jack actually have a tattoo? Is the beach really covered in sand?
48. How was Walt communicating with Michael at the Swan computer? Was it really Walt? Had the show not sufficiently established by this point that Walt is magic?
56. Why was Locke so curious about the origin of Sawyer's name? What?
58. What happened to the real Henry Gale and why? Now you want backstory episodes for people who WEREN'T EVEN CHARACTERS?
67. Why was the orientation film edited and why were the missing parts in the other station hidden in the bible and simply not destroyed I'm not sure this is a mystery so much as a poorly constructed plot.
68. Who/what brought the girl in Australia back to life? Is this an ongoing plot of some sort that I forgot?
69. Who was Sawyer talking about when he said I love her while recovering from his infection? This is a legitimate question, but it's not really the sort of question you normally expect an answer to, per se.
75. Why have so many people lost their arm (Montand, Wickman/Waxman, Ray Mullen) Why on earth would you ask this question?
76. What was the "Hurley Bird" The ultimate stupid question. The "Hurley Bird" is a bird that people thought sounded like it was saying "Hurley." It's completely unimportant to anything and everything.
77. What was meant be "The computer must'nt be used for anything else". What else could the computer be used for? Playing Oregon Trail?
81. How did Kelvin know Desmond had arrived on the island? Is Kelvin really dead? Idle curiosity and an "Is X really true?" question combined into one!
82. Why were there blast doors and a huge stash of guns in the Swan? Because, as we saw, the place was explosive?
83. If the Swan hatch imploded, why did the hatch door go flying out to the beach? Because obviously not all of the hatch imploded. WOW!
84. Why did the monster kill the pilot? …
86. Was Edmund's death an accident? This is, again, not the sort of question that you should be expecting answers for. It was a completely incidental thing that was meant to imply that the Dharma Initiative kills people to get what it wants, not an ongoing mystery.
93. How did Mr.Paik know Jin & Sun were planning to run away? I didn't really wonder this. The dude is well-connected. They don't have to spell out every little ****ing thing.
95. Why were all the hairbrushes gone after the crash You honestly think this is a good list?
96. How did such a rare bottle of whiskey make it to the island? Is it from Widmore's stash? Seriously, who cares?

Chuck___"Instead of either 'multi-talented' or 'multitalented' use 'bisexual'."

4. Why do all the characters seemed to have run into each other before the flight? It would be far more stupid if they did attempt to answer this question. - Then why have them in the first place? If there wasn't a significance to the characters meeting before the crash they wouldn't show it.
10. What is causing all the hallucinations on the island? Didn't they establish earlier this season that it was the smoke monster? - No, they didn't.
11. Why is Desmond able to predict future events? Already answered. - No, it hasn't been. We've seen that he can, but we don't know WHY he can.
12. What happened to Michael and Walt? Like…all the stuff in their flashback episodes? - No, like after they left the island? Benry said that no one can really leave, remember?
12. Did Desmond really travel back in time, or was it just another different type of hallucination? I don't think they were trying to set this up as a major question. - They spent a whole episode on it, why would that be minor?
14. Who is "him"? Uh…right. - Yeah i dunno that one either.
15. What exactly was the Incident? Last season's finale gave us a decent idea. - That's what you assume, we have no idea if that really was another "incident."
16. How did Locke, Eko and Desmond all escape the hatch before certain death? Why was Desmond naked, and how did he get from the hatch to the jungle? It appears "certain death" is not an accurate description of the situation, is it? - They were all in a structure that imploded, yet they all survived. Um, what?
20. What caused the Nigerian plane to crash on the Island? This is more idle curiosity than an actual mystery, isn't it? - Not really, considering the amount of consequences that have happened because of that plane.
21. What is the significance of the eye close-ups? ?? - That's more of a style of the directors, dunno why it's a question.
27. What is the Dharma Shark? WTF? - The shark that attacked Sawyer in the water had a Dharma logo on it.
32. What happened to the the Black Rock? How did the Black Rock get so far inland? This falls under the category of "Interesting question, but not one that I really feel like the show needs to answer specifically." You don't ever wonder how a ship made it over a mile into an island?
34. Was Libby sent by someone to give Desmond the sailboat? If the answer is no, are they supposed to have an episode all about how Libby wasn't sent by someone to give Desmond the sailboat? - No, but they could explain this by explaining why all the characters met before the crash.
35. Why were there so many survivors from the crash? Because the show would be really boring if everybody died. - True.
38. Why did the smoke monster kill Eko? The same reason it kills everything else? - Except Locke stared it down and it went away. Eko had seen it once before and it didn't kill him. Why did it kill him that time?
41. Why did the entire sky light up when Desmond turned the failsafe? I have no idea why we're asking this question. Do we want some kind of detailed scientific explanation or what? - Yes, we want to know what happened when Desmond turned the key.
42. Who was Libby's husband David? Any connection to Hurley's Dave? I didn't remember Mr. David, and I question whether we were supposed to be wondering this. - You don't remember because they gloss over these questions and move on, never answering them.
45. Why did the Others burn Kate's clothes? Why did they burn Colleen after she died? Once again, doesn't really belong under the heading of "mystery" so much as "idle curiosity." - You could say the same thing about this entire show, the point is that it's a mystery that they haven't explained. At the time we thought there could be a disease on the Losties side of the island and this was a big point.
46. Is Rose's cancer really cured? What kind of dumbass question is this? You can ask "Is X really true?" about any fact on the show. Is Charlie really short? Does Jack actually have a tattoo? Is the beach really covered in sand? - Because it involves a much larger question - can the island actually heal people???
48. How was Walt communicating with Michael at the Swan computer? Was it really Walt? Had the show not sufficiently established by this point that Walt is magic? - Walt is magic? Since when?
56. Why was Locke so curious about the origin of Sawyer's name? What? - Yeah I dunno about that one...
58. What happened to the real Henry Gale and why? Now you want backstory episodes for people who WEREN'T EVEN CHARACTERS? - Someone else crashes on the island? That's a pretty big deal.
67. Why was the orientation film edited and why were the missing parts in the other station hidden in the bible and simply not destroyed I'm not sure this is a mystery so much as a poorly constructed plot. - Touche.
68. Who/what brought the girl in Australia back to life? Is this an ongoing plot of some sort that I forgot? - Probably, again because they touch on it then move on never to go back.
69. Who was Sawyer talking about when he said I love her while recovering from his infection? This is a legitimate question, but it's not really the sort of question you normally expect an answer to, per se. - On any other show it would be answered. And if you were to witness someone saying that you'd ask about it too.
75. Why have so many people lost their arm (Montand, Wickman/Waxman, Ray Mullen) Why on earth would you ask this question? - Because it's an unexplained pattern.
76. What was the "Hurley Bird" The ultimate stupid question. The "Hurley Bird" is a bird that people thought sounded like it was saying "Hurley." It's completely unimportant to anything and everything. - agreed
77. What was meant be "The computer must'nt be used for anything else". What else could the computer be used for? Playing Oregon Trail? - That would've been cool.
81. How did Kelvin know Desmond had arrived on the island? Is Kelvin really dead? Idle curiosity and an "Is X really true?" question combined into one! - What you call idle curiosity I call a plot hole.
82. Why were there blast doors and a huge stash of guns in the Swan? Because, as we saw, the place was explosive? - So it needed to be protected from...itself? How would guns stop it from exploding?
83. If the Swan hatch imploded, why did the hatch door go flying out to the beach? Because obviously not all of the hatch imploded. WOW! - This is more of a physics question, but there's no way the whole thing imploded except for the door.
84. Why did the monster kill the pilot? … ...
86. Was Edmund's death an accident? This is, again, not the sort of question that you should be expecting answers for. It was a completely incidental thing that was meant to imply that the Dharma Initiative kills people to get what it wants, not an ongoing mystery. - But if the others really are part of this initiative, they claim to not be killers hence your theory is incorrect.
93. How did Mr.Paik know Jin & Sun were planning to run away? I didn't really wonder this. The dude is well-connected. They don't have to spell out every little ****ing thing. - You're probably right about this one.
95. Why were all the hairbrushes gone after the crash You honestly think this is a good list? - Yes, but not necessarily because of this question.
96. How did such a rare bottle of whiskey make it to the island? Is it from Widmore's stash? Seriously, who cares?[/QUOTE] - It was the first question I had when I saw the bottle. And if it really was so good, why didn't Sawyer drink it?

Look, this show prides itself on every single thing being very important to the show. People analyze everything on the screen and the writers know that and they exploit it sometimes. There are just way too many things left unexplained for a show like this.

Look, this show prides itself on every single thing being very important to the show.

Not like that. I've heard the creators actually make fun of people who come up with all these "Is X really true?" questions on the podcast. And they actually made fun of the "Hurley bird" people on the show (which was great).

Quite frankly, if the show went into the excruciating detail on every topic like it would have to in order not to have a list like that, the show would suck. Massively suck. Can you imagine a whole episode devoted to explaining why Claire couldn't find hairbrushes in another episode? They're already focusing a lot more on answering questions this half of the season — even to the point where they do a whole episode about Jack's stupid tattoo — but there will always be a huge list of things like "Hey, remember this incidental character who was in one episode and important only for how he affected a main character — what's up with him?"

(
Last edited by Chuckit; Feb 24, 2007 at 12:54 AM.
)

Chuck___"Instead of either 'multi-talented' or 'multitalented' use 'bisexual'."

Look, this show prides itself on every single thing being very important to the show. People analyze everything on the screen and the writers know that and they exploit it sometimes. There are just way too many things left unexplained for a show like this.

Personally, I'm developing the opinion that, much like X-Files, there is not real plan to Lost, that the creators are just throwing out random events and have no intention of resolving them.

Here's a question to add to the list:
1326. What's going on in the Real World with Desmond's girlfriend and that Arctic listening post?

They should've added some sense of CONFLICT into the last episode, that while the Others were punishing Juliet, they were also rushing around trying to get off the Hydra island (as opposed to the relax pace they were able to do it at). Jack could've been difficult, which is all he can do right now, he can't be that proactive when in a cage, when they were trying to do so.
Also, the whole idea of letting Karl go, they never really made any effort to keep him. They were very relaxed about the whole thing. If they had tied him up or something, then their desire to keep him would have been shown greater

These last 2 episodes have been disappointing to me. Mostly because of how slow they've been, and how little they've accomplished. Also, I really dislike how romantic and emotional the show is getting. All of these long sequences of nothing but slow emotional music while the characters gaze off into the distance, longing for something. It reeks of crap to fill air time. Plus its so boring and unnecessary.

It seems like none of them really want to get off of the island anymore. Its not a priority for them. Seems like they've all become complacent in their new jungle home. So far this season has been disappointing to me. I can't think of anything really big they revealed so far. At the end of every episode I wait for the big shocker that will make me long for the next one. But it isn't coming anymore. This last episode's big shocker was Russo finding out her daughter is still alive... booorrrriinngg.

I fear if the writers don't grow back some balls before the end of this season the show will die out before they're done with it.

And it's boring because we already knew. They played music like we're supposed to be shocked, but I was just laughing.

Exactly. And the episode before this one there was nothing at the end but soft music and shots of various cast members once again gazing off into the distance. And I'm getting sick of all of the romances taking center stage. I'm sick of the Kate/Sawyer/Jack love sandwich, in which one of them is always crying. Already sick of Alex and her boyfriend constantly crying over one another. And then we had the opening of this episode with Hurley balling over what'sherface's grave.

STOP CRYING! GET PISSED AND KICK SOME "OTHERS" ASS! GET OFF THE DAMN ISLAND!

The first season was full of action and mystery. The second season was part action, part mystery, part love stories. So far the third season has been mostly love stories with a sprinkling of mystery. A tiny bit of action thrown in to keep us from falling asleep I guess.

I don't know, I guess I'm just frustrated because this seems to be really dragging on with no real end in sight and no solid mystery to follow anymore. I don't know who to root for (if anyone) or what to root for (get off the island? stay on it? make friends with everyone? kill everyone?).

Are there too many loose ends? Seems like its getting way to complicated to keep track of everything thats going on. I think the audience is losing the motivation to care anymore. I know I am. Damn writers.

I also don't get why driving that van down the hill, hoping to start it before they hit the rocks was supposed to be the thing that lifted Hurley's curse. He's been in many other situations where he could've died, or people around him could've died but they didn't. So why is this incident so special? And how did he know that if the van started, the curse was lifted. Or is it just the act of truly believing that makes the curse go away?

I still want Charlie to die. He's become so damn annoying. All he does now is smother Claire and go around aggravating people.